NVD / CVE Program· CNA PostgreSQL

CVE-2026-12046: pgAdmin 4: Unauthenticated pickle deserialization in SQL Editor close / update_connection routes enables remote code execution

CriticalCVSS 9.5 · v4.0—No exploit Fix available

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 38/100)

The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 1% (FIRST EPSS); higher than 64.3% of all records.
Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it. No account or password is required. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
Fixed version: pgadmin4 (openSUSE:Tumbleweed) 9.17-1.1.

Low priority for now. Upgrade to pgadmin4 (openSUSE:Tumbleweed) 9.17-1.1 or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

Two state-mutating endpoints in pgAdmin 4's SQL Editor blueprint -- DELETE /sqleditor/close/<trans_id> and POST /sqleditor/initialize/sqleditor/update_connection/<sgid>/<sid>/<did> -- were the only routes in the module missing the @pga_login_required decorator. Both reach a pickle.loads sink on session['gridData'][<trans_id>]['command_obj']: the close endpoint via close_sqleditor_session(), and update_sqleditor_connection via check_transaction_status(). In server mode these endpoints were reachable without any authenticated pgAdmin session. The defect is a missing-authentication-on-critical-function (CWE-306) wrapper around a deserialization-of-untrusted-data sink (CWE-502). Exploiting it for remote code execution requires the attacker to also forge a server-side session file whose gridData entry contains a malicious pickle payload, which in turn requires both (a) knowledge of pgAdmin's Flask SECRET_KEY (no chain to leak it is described here -- the attacker must already possess it) and (b) write access to pgAdmin's sessions/ directory on the host. Neither precondition is granted by this defect on its own. When those preconditions are met from another channel (misconfigured deployment, prior compromise, leaked configuration), the missing auth gate is the final hop that turns an existing partial compromise into unauthenticated code execution in the pgAdmin process -- and, by extension, on the host under whatever account runs pgAdmin. Fix is a one-line @pga_login_required decorator on each of the two endpoints, matching the convention used by every other route in the module. The is_authenticated / MFA chain now runs before the trans_id is dereferenced, so an unauthenticated request is rejected before reaching the deserialization path. The defect is server-mode only. In DESKTOP mode pgAdmin's before_request hook re-authenticates DESKTOP_USER on every request, so no endpoint can be exercised in an unauthenticated state and no auth decorator (or its absence) is meaningful. The accompanying regression test mirrors the attacker's path -- harvests an X-pgA-CSRFToken from GET /login and replays it against both endpoints -- and self-skips outside server mode for that reason; it is wired into the existing server-mode CI workflow alongside the data-isolation tests. This issue affects pgAdmin 4: from 6.9 before 9.16.

Published: Jun 19, 2026
Updated: Oct 25, 2026
EPSS: 1.0% · 64th percentile
CWE: CWE-306

Report tools

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Action score

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS: 38 / 40 · 9.5 / 10
CISA KEV: 0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS: 0 / 30 · 1.0%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation: none
Automatable: no
Technical impact: total

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD: —
CNA · PostgreSQL: 9.0; NVD has not scored this yet; the score shown is the CNA’s.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.

Get told when this record changes

Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
No public exploit code on record
A fix has been released

If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

Vendor	Product	CPE
pgadmin	pgadmin 4	cpe:2.3:a:pgadmin:pgadmin_4

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (PostgreSQL). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

pgadmin.org pgAdmin 4
- 6.9 and later · before 9.16affected

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

pgadmin pgadmin 46.9 and later · before 9.16

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

Ecosystem	Package	Affected range	Fix
openSUSE:Tumbleweed	pgadmin4	before 9.17-1.1	9.17-1.1

Same product

pgadmin: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

CVE-2024-2044Unsafe Deserialisation and Remote Code Execution by an Authenticated user in pgAdmin 4
63This week
CVE-2024-3116Remote Code Execution Vulnerability through the validate binary path API in pgAdmin 4
60This week
CVE-2022-4223The pgAdmin server includes an HTTP API that is intended to be used to validate the path a user selects to external PostgreSQL utilities…
59Plan

Published before and after this one in the same product

← EarlierCVE-2026-12044Jun 19, 2026 · pgAdmin 4: SQL injection in COMMENT ON ... IS '<description>' rendering across dialog templates
34Monitor
← EarlierCVE-2026-12045Jun 19, 2026 · pgAdmin 4: AI Assistant read-only transaction bypass allows unauthorised writes and remote code execution
37Monitor
Later →CVE-2026-12047Jun 19, 2026 · pgAdmin 4: HTML injection in cloud verify_credentials / deploy endpoints via unsanitised SDK exception text
19Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / package	Fixed version	Source
opensuse:pgadmin4	9.17-1.1 · openSUSE:Tumbleweed	Package registry (OSV)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

pgadmin-org/pgadmin4commit f81433a

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

Ashesh Vashi <ashesh.vashi@enterprisedb.com>remediation developer
Fernando Bortotti <fernando.bortotti@bsd.com.br>finder

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

CVE-2026-1734842 days apartpgAdmin 4: Missing authentication decorator on Constraints, preferences, Debugger and Schema Diff routes allows unauthenticated access in SERVER mode…
27Monitor

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

CVE-2026-120450 days apartpgAdmin 4: AI Assistant read-only transaction bypass allows unauthorised writes and remote code execution
37Monitor
CVE-2026-120440 days apartpgAdmin 4: SQL injection in COMMENT ON ... IS '<description>' rendering across dialog templates
34Monitor
CVE-2026-781739 days apartpgAdmin 4: Local file inclusion and server-side request forgery in LLM API configuration endpoints
28Monitor
CVE-2026-120500 days apartpgAdmin 4: SQL injection in named restore point endpoint
21Monitor

Not on record for this CVE: EPSS history · public bounty program.

Technical details

Attack conditions

Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
No account or password is required.
No user action is required.
No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
Integrity
Availability

Attack vector: Network
Attack complexity: Low
Privileges required: None
User interaction: None
Scope: X

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-306 · Missing Authentication for Critical Function

CVSS vector

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

nvd-secondary

Root cause

A function added for development or support ships to production without authentication. It often relies on the assumption that it is “only reachable from the internal network.”

The bug in code

The whole CWE-306 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

1// Added for the support team
2app.post("/maintenance/reset", resetDevice);

Fixed

1if (config.maintenanceEnabled) {
2  app.post(
3    "/maintenance/reset",
4    requireSession, requireRole("admin"), resetDevice
5  );
6}

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

Attack patterns (CAPEC)

ATT&CK techniques

—

Change log (1)

Fix✗ → ✓Sep 28, 2026, 10:46 PM UTC

For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →

References

github.com/pgadmin-org/pgadmin4/commit/f81433ae2f998f95bb17f27f53b4e99ebcc1df9c

Show all references (1 more)

github.com/pgadmin-org/pgadmin4/issues/10072

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records